The Theory of Direct Mail:
7. Differentiation - now the customer decides, "Have I seen this sort of stuff before?"
 
So now you have grabbed attention. What are you going to do with it?
You have to hold it. Which means you have to present something really interesting, entertaining, exciting, stimulating. And different.
Different is important, because if the reader thinks, oh I've seen this before, you will lose the reader. So you really have to go out of your way to be different.
Fortunately this is not as hard as it sounds.
The great assistance you are given in this drive towards differentiation is that most of your rivals will not be differentiating - in fact they will be doing exactly the opposite of what they should be doing - they will be doing what the other guy does.
In fact most direct mail follows this pattern so much so that I have often called my seminars on direct mail "Let's do what the other guy does".
The theory tells us that we have to focus all the time on the way in which the recipients see the mail. So what they see is a load of junk, all of a similar nature. They stop bothering with it - a quick glance, and then in the bin.
But then your mailer comes along and it is different - which means they will want to look at it. Of course being different is not enough - but it is a good start. You have to offer them something really good at this point - but it has to be different.
Being different often means not shouting your company out from the page in every line - often it means not mentioning who you are until the end of your opening piece. Being different can mean being funny, or it can mean telling a story, or it can mean solving a problem.
- The first step to being different is to want to be different
- The second step is to collect examples of the work of your competitors and note what they do.
- The third step is to do different things.
So if they are selling by price, don't sell on price - sell on benefits. If they are selling on benefits, use the mailshot to ask a really interesting question, such as "What is the best way to save money on your car tyres?" (and then point out that cheap tyres are not worth it because they wear out in half the time). If they are doing some really sophisticated benefit driven stuff, try being funny. Whatever you personally think of the letter that follows there are certain facts to be considered:
- it got a very high readership and response rate
- it worked well as part of a campaign to differentiate us from our rivals.
So I am not saying, you should do it like this. I am saying that the theory of direct mail which focusses totally on how the recipient deals with your mail, rather than on what you want to sell, demands that you differentiate. And the letter below illustrates just one of a million ways of doing it.
The number of children eaten by bears as a result of stepping on the cracks is down by 25%
Last week I was delighted to welcome Sir Mark Thatcher to the Toppled Bollard where he gave a speech at the “Tell It As It Is” awards for people in the public eye who “Tell It As It Is”.
“I was born,” he said, and we all clapped and cheered. “In 1953,” he continued. “ At Harrow I got three O levels, in map-reading, theatre studies and politics. I chose not to go to Oxford University with my pal Jeff Archer, but instead decided to become a chartered accountant.” There were gasps from the audience and the sound of bottles bouncing on the floor.
“But I was badly advised, and no one told me that there would be exams. However, I told the authorities about my O levels in cooking, car mechanics and elementary surveying, I weighed up the pros and cons and put them in alphabetical order but I failed the exam three times. I was, however, undaunted and immediately set up Mark Thatcher Racing. We lost lots of money, but in the Sahara I met International Rescue. But they didn’t have any strings attached so I revealed to the world that Thunderbirds isn’t true – but the newspapers wouldn’t run the story.
“By this time I didn’t have any strings attached either. The papers next suggested that I was involved in a £300m contract to build a university in Oman , which is an obvious activity for someone with O levels in human anatomy, needlework and environmental studies. But I moved to Texas and married Diane. Her father has lots of money and cars. I told him I like to drive, as befits a man with O levels in campanology, criminology and choreography.
“However it seems people in the US don’t like us Brits – I suppose it is because of my naturally retiring nature. They said I married Diane for her money and I said of course I did. Then they said that I was involved in racketeering, and there was a big court case. I said it was all untrue. I explained I was a man with O levels in ceramics, Welsh and quantum mechanics, and men of that stature don’t do racketeering – whatever that is.
“So Diane and I moved to South Africa where everyone sits by the pool and talks. I was good at that. But even there the authorities came after me about a loans scheme. I said I don’t know anything about loans – I have nothing to loan, unless someone wanted to borrow my O levels in cream diversity, jollificationalism, and silicon technology. But then Diane took the kids and shot back to Texas , and the South African police arrested me over some sort of coup in Equatorial Guinea . I told them that a man with O levels in fox hunting, genealogy and spaghetti enhancement does not get involved in Equatorial Guinea – of all places. So now I feel like a cork floating down the Colorado river . Even that got misquoted however. I definitely said ‘cork’.
Tony Attwood
PS: You can read more about life at the Toppled Bollard at www.toppled.info You can buy mailing lists on line at www.hamilton-house.com You can get blown about on a windy day at the end of Southend Pier, and you can talk about how to get higher response rates in direct mail by calling us on 01536 399 000. No horseman will call. |
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The full set of pages covering The Theory of Direct Mail are shown below. If you want to move to the next page, just click here
Below is a list of the factors that make up The Total Theory of Direct Mail:
- Why most firms ignore the theory and produce direct mail that fails.
- When and where the mailing is received - what the recipient is doing at the moment of impact.
- The personality of the individual you are mailing, and how that affects the mailing.
- The envelope - it is the first thing you see - does it make any difference?
- The interaction between the brain and the paper - there are issues of neurophysiology at work which must be taken into effect.
- The mail is opened - the next five seconds are vital; so what does mailsort do at this point?
- Differentiation - now the customer decides, "Have I seen this sort of stuff before?"
- The customer decides to read - but then colour can get in the way.
- Using images to try and hold attention - the grabby image problem.
- Skipping - no matter what you try, most recipients do it.
- The end - as likely to effect the result as the start
- The second page - its function and layout.
- Subsequent page interference - so unexpected most people refuse to admit it exists - but it really does happen.
- What do you want the reader to do next?
- Ordering - are you making it easy?
This article is an extract from the book "Doubling Response Rates: The Theory and Practice of Direct Mail" (c) Tony Attwood 2006
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